Schwarzenegger acts on health care, foster care

SACRAMENTO, Calif. 
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made California the first state to create an insurance exchange under new federal health care reform as he ended the bill signing period Thursday by also approving bills addressing topics ranging from kindergarten to foster care.

He signed seven major health care-reform bills and another seven bills extending foster care benefits, along with measures to punish parents of truant children and crack down on human trafficking.

The state's landmark health care legislation sets up an oversight board for an insurance exchange that will let consumers comparison-shop for coverage. Other bills in the package bar insurers from denying coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition and let young adults stay on their parents' health care plans until they turn 26.

The laws all tie the nation's most populous state into federal reforms set to take effect in 2014.

Thursday's developments represent a "significant breakthrough in the historic effort to overhaul the broken health care system in America, the worst excesses of which are seen daily in California," said Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, author of one of the flagship reform bills.

The foster care bills extend some services to youths until they turn 21. Currently, they lose all benefits when they turn 18.

The state will take advantage of federal funding to help those youths stay with relatives, in group homes or with a foster family.

Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, who co-authored AB12, said extending housing and other benefits will help the youths as they struggle to become adults without support from their parents.

Related measure AB743 encourages keeping siblings together in the foster care system. Two others, AB1933 and SB1353, try to give foster youth stability in their schooling.

The governor already has signed or vetoed about 500 bills in a year when legislators and Schwarzenegger were preoccupied with the state's $19 billion budget deficit.

Under California law, the governor had until Oct. 1 to act on bills that passed during the latest legislative session.

Among other bills signed by the governor:

- SB1381, to move California's kindergarten cutoff date from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1. California currently has one of the nation's latest start dates, with an estimated 100,000 children starting school before their 5th birthday. The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates the state could save $700 million annually by reducing enrollment. Under the bill by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, half of the savings go to cut the state's deficit. The other half would fund so-called "transitional kindergarten" programs for 4-year-olds who are no longer eligible for kindergarten.

- Two bills cracking down on human trafficking: SB677, which lets courts seize property used in human trafficking, and SB657, which requires major retailers and manufacturers doing business in California to disclose on their websites any steps they take to ensure their product supply chains are free of slavery and trafficking.

- SB1317, letting prosecutors charge parents with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if their kids miss too much school. The bill by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would let judges delay the punishment as an incentive for parents to get their children to class. It applies to parents or guardians of children age 6 or older in kindergarten through eighth grade. Prosecutors would have to prove the parents failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the student to attend school.

- SB949, barring local governments from writing their own vehicle codes and keeping money collected in traffic tickets. The bill by Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, said her bill will eliminate a patchwork of ordinances and help with collecting accurate traffic safety statistics.

- SB1057, requiring the Legislature and state agencies to observe Veterans Day on Nov. 11. The bill by Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, was prompted by a veteran's widow who complained that lawmakers sometimes switched their observance to a Monday or Friday to give employees a three-day weekend.

- AB2084, restricting the beverages that can be given children in the state's daycare centers. The bill by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, prohibits centers from serving children drinks with natural or artificial sweeteners. The centers can serve juice just once each day, and it has to be 100 percent juice. Milk served to children age 2 and older must be 1 percent low-fat.

- SB1413, requiring the bulk of the state's public schools to provide students with free and safe drinking water. The bill by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is intended to promote healthy eating habits in school cafeterias.

He also vetoed AB234 by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, that would have required tanker ships to deploy oil booms as a preventive measure before transferring fuel in California waters.